On board Air Force One and on his way to the NATO summit in The Hague on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said that there’s ‘always a problem with Spain’, in reference to the country not agreeing to spend 5% of its GDP on defence.
Trump said to reporters: ‘There’s always a problem with Spain. Spain is not agreeing, which is very unfair to the rest of them, frankly.’
The US president last week said that, ‘Spain has to pay what everybody else has to pay,’ calling the country ‘notorious’ for spending less on defence than other alliance members, describing the country as a ‘very low payer’. He added: ‘Nato is going to have to deal with Spain.’
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez seemed very keen to distract attention from a string of corruption allegations facing his socialist PSOE party on Sunday, by making an unscheduled televised address to the nation to announce that he had secured a deal with NATO not to reach the 5% target, saying his country would not spend a penny more than 2.1%. ALSO READ: Spain reaches deal with NATO to be excluded from 5% defence spending goal.
Spain was NATO’s lowest defence spender last year, investing only 1.28% of its GDP, according to alliance data. In April, Sánchez pledged to increase that figure to 2% this year, a decision that sparked domestic criticism, including from members of his own political coalition. ALSO READ: Pedro Sánchez announces €10.5bn more in defence spending, to reach 2% of GDP.
Sánchez has insisted that the 5% threshold is ‘incompatible with our worldview’, and has argued that there should be more focus on smart procurement instead of the amount of money spent.
Mark Rutte, NATO’s secretary-general, has since denied that he had agreed to exempt Spain from the 5% level. ‘NATO has no opt-out and NATO doesn’t know side deals,’ he said.
Spain is holding out even on a compromise deal in which allies promise to reach 3.5% on core military needs over the next decade and a further 1.5% on the looser category of ‘defence-related’ expenditures such as infrastructure and cybersecurity.
‘Only Spain believes it can achieve these goals with 2.1% spending,’ said Rutte. ‘NATO is absolutely convinced that Spain will have to spend 3.5%. So we’re going to evaluate it in 2029. Then we’ll see where they stand.’
According to the right-wing opposition, the People’s Party (PP), Sánchez has not secured any exemption with NATO, and they have again accused him of ‘lying’ in his televised address.
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Donald Trump declara que hay un problema con España sobre el gasto militar en la OTAN y añade que es muy injusto con el resto#Canal24Horashttps://t.co/rscwNdu0AB pic.twitter.com/D1whqrCbid
— RTVE Noticias (@rtvenoticias) June 24, 2025
Trump: “And they’re having a problem with Spain. There’s a problem with Spain. Spain is not agreeing. Which is very unfair to the rest of the people, frankly.” pic.twitter.com/Rxt5ob8iaH
— Dori Toribio (@DoriToribio) June 24, 2025
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